Green councillor quits party citing culture of tolerating personal abuse
Cllr Peter Kavanagh & Eamon Ryan. Picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins
A fourth Green Party councillor has quit the party, saying that the culture within the party had led to the toleration of personalised abuse.
Clondalkin Councillor Peter Kavanagh was the party's Irish language spokesperson and took part in government formation talks last summer.
His resignation follows those of Cork City councillor Lorna Bogue, Ballyfermot-Drimnagh councillor Sophie Nicoullaud and Tallaght councillor Liam Sinclair.
Mr Kavanagh today tendered his resignation from the party, with his resignation letter saying that he began to receive abuse from within the party over his criticism of party leader Eamon Ryan's use of a racial slur in the Dáil while quoting from a newspaper article.
"(A)t no stage did I accuse the leader of anything other than an insensitive misstep.
"I called on the party to address how this happened and to take steps to avoid any future incidents.
"Unfortunately, since then, I have been subjected to continuous and consistent anonymous harassment from individuals claiming to be members and supporters of the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas. As a politician, I am no stranger to abuse, but in November 2020 the tone of this harassment changed from abusive to threatening.
Mr Kavanagh said that he reported one particular abusive email, seen by the , to party leadership in November, but did not receive a response until January. This response, Mr Kavanagh said, was unsatisfactory and did not assuage his fears that senior party figures had told members that he was "bad news" and needed to be removed from the party.
Mr Kavanagh said that the party had become "less able to have differences of opinion".
"What attracted me to the Green Party was that it was membership-led, that I could feed into policy and have an equal say. But this has been replaced with deference to leadership, as evidenced by the CETA debate. I would argue it's not in the Programme for Government, but if it is, then it's a bitter pill we would have to swallow. But the leader now saying it is a good thing, actually, is hard to accept.
"Eamon has always said that the party is in this government for the long haul and has never been duplicitous about that but the license we're giving is too much for two parties who are diametrically opposed to us."
In his resignation letter, Mr Kavanagh says that the party has shut itself off from "critical analysis" of it itself.
Mr Kavanagh said that he does not necessarily believe that a split in the party is not necessary, but says he will continue to work for his constituency.
"There's always an argument that there should be a Green Party that holds true to the green principles but I'm of the belief that that should be this Green Party. We were always able to handle differences of opinions before, but now any differing opinion is seen as disloyalty. It's a really worrying new trend.
"My council work is incredibly busy, so I'm 100% committed to delivering for the people of Clondalkin."
The councillor, who ran in the 2019 Dublin Mid-West by-election and the 2020 General Election, said that he believed that Green politicians in Government will achieve major policy wins, but said that they would come at the cost of "compromising the party's guiding principles".
"In my address to the special convention in 2020, I stated that I campaigned for the Green Party to be in government, but not at any cost. I believe that the compromise of our guiding principles and the culture that has grown up around our role in this coalition to be too high a cost."
The Greens took 49 seats in the 2019 local elections amid a so-called "Green Wave".
